Please be specific and descriptive, and say which web browser you're using, as problems often occur on only one browser (or phone). Also, for aesthetic feedback, be aware that people tend to have very different opinions, so be as specific as possible when describing what you do or don't like (and why), so we can tell what you're referring to. Screenshots are especially handy!
For an introduction to Rift, please see the News page.
Update #1: First Rift patch: details here.
Update #2: Quite a lot of banners weren't unlocking properly, sorry! This has now been fixed, but some nations will be missing banners that they qualified for in between now and when they first selected Rift. To correct this in your nation, change your theme from Rift to default and then back to Rift. This forces a banner re-check.
Update #3: Rift patch including new forum sidebar: details here.
FAQ
It looks wrong in the forums!
Now the major drawback: currently Rift doesn't translate well to the forums, especially if you use the forum sidebar (which is the default). If you turn off the forum sidebar by clicking the tiny X in its top-right, you'll get a topbar instead, which is somewhat more useful. In time, Rift support will extend to the forums, but for now it's not so great.
I.e. under Rift, unless you replace the forum sidebar with the topbar, you no longer have a direct link to your nation or can see how many new telegrams you have.
As a temporary solution, Rift now has a slightly different sidebar in the forums, which displays your nation name and links to your issues and telegrams.
What if I don't want to use Rift?
Carry on as usual! Today, Rift is an optional theme. In the future, it will be the site default, but the current look (Century) will be available as an optional theme.
What if I want some Rift features but not others?
Some Rift features, such as Notices and RMB Likes, may be back-ported to Century. Banners won't, since they are dependent on the new Rift look.
Can you add an option for ____?
This is a common suggestion when some people want things a bit different to everyone else. Please be aware that while it sounds like a no-brainer, adding an option for everything would leave us with a complicated, hard-to-use and hard-to-maintain interface.
I use NS++ and things look wrong!
Please see the NationStates++ thread. NS++ users should please not use this thread for NS++ issues. If you're unsure whether something is due to Rift or NS++, please try disabling NS++ first before posting a bug report here.
Will there be a Dark Rift?
Dark is a popular theme that turns the lights down on NS, going easy on your eyes. It was created and is maintained by Northrop-Grumman.
Does my national motto have to be attributed to my nation's leader?
How do I get my (custom) banner to display just right?
When uploading a banner, a size of 1200x300 pixels is optimal. There's no problem using a different size, but aim for an image that's around 4 times as wide as it is tall, or much of your image may not be visible. Uploaded banners are automatically resized and compressed as necessary. Rift may get a better upload tool in the future that will allow you to crop and resize manually, but for now, if your image's aspect ratio is not close to 4:1, the uploader will just grab an appropriate slice from the middle.
Banners have to fill a variable-sized space, depending on the shape and size of the viewer's browser. This means you can't guarantee that a particular part of any banner will always be visible. Rather, the farther away from the center of the pic, the less likely that part will be seen.
Images work best as banners when they have a strong horizontal through-line: that is, the interesting part of the image is mostly laid out along the middle in a horizontal fashion.
I don't want to receive notices for new TGs/Issues/other.
It's planned that you'll be able to customize this, disabling notices for the things you don't care about (or find redundant, given the TG and Issues notifiers), and possibly enabling notifications by email for the things you really do. This may not occur before Rift goes out of beta, though.
Everything is so beautiful I want to hug you!
I know!
